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Taking golf lessons sounds painless enough — but beware! They can actually be fatal to one’s natural swing, mental well-being and even pocketbook. There are plenty of gypsy “coaches” hanging around the driving range at your local municipal course, eager to get you to keep your head down and left arm straight, and generally leaving your game in tatters, hopelessly trying to figure out how to advance the ball fifty yards without hurting yourself or others!

Enter PGA Golf Instructor Tom Szwedzinski, the beyond-affable Director of Golf at Saticoy Country Club, which — by the way — serious scholars of the game discuss in the same breath as Riviera and even LACC North. It is tough as nails, flowingly designed by Billy Bell back in 1964 and sits most handsomely in the verdant hills above the strawberry and avocado fields that border the 101 in Camarillo. Memberships are available and quite reasonable — if you like golf, you will outright love Saticoy. It’s that good, and a true test of one’s skills. Bring your humility….

Mr. Szwedzinski has been a longtime popular teacher and swing coach in Southern California, but is currently renewing his efforts to turn more people on to the pleasures of the game. He prefers to offer up his wisdom on the course, where one’s skills are actually put to the test with varying lies and situations. For my money, the driving range is great for warming up, but a joyless enterprise otherwise. Hitting off a mat is not golfing.

Also, let’s be honest about golf gurus in general: bedside manner is a huge component in a good teacher, and, thankfully, Major Tom knows how to wed his biblical knowledge of golf’s physics with a double dollop of positive psychology, the perfect one-two punch when it comes to effective coaching. Trust me, I’ve been beaten to a pulp by a variety of pro’s and appreciate when criticism comes with an indulgent smile rather than a scowl. Patience is a hard-won virtue, and Mr. S has it in spades….

In fact, Tom Szwedzinski smiles so much you wonder what’s in the water-table out there in Camarillo, but, hey, I’m not going there, friends! You can reach him at (805) 485-4956 or via email at Tom@saticoycountryclub.com.

I recently came back from nine days of golf in Los Cabos, Mexico, very confused indeed. The nice thing about being a golf writer is that a club pro occasionally joins me for a round, and will happily dispense advice when asked nicely. The unwanted result? I came back with more chiming voices in my head than Sybil, yet still unable to get rid of a nasty duck-hook off the tee. Sometimes too much coaching can lead to disaster rather than improvement.

“Console yourself, lad,” I told myself. “Your swing is in transition, like Tiger’s!”

I was weaving this self-pitiful tale for Steve Friedlander, the doge and duke of all things golf down at elegant Pelican Hill Golf Club (and Oak Creek as well, another great Tom Fazio design) when he looked at me with a disarming smile and said softly: “It’s a game — have fun!” A game? What a novel notion! You mean, I’ve been taking myself too seriously? I thought I was so chill, so nonchalant on the course. Had I been missing the forest for the trees?

Mind you, I’d trekked down to Newport Beach not only to play one of my favorite courses, but also to learn about winter plans for the Pelican Hill Golf Academy, where Southern California PGA Teacher of the Year Glenn Deck ably holds the reins. One can take intensive half-day courses there in a number of critical areas: putting; chipping; full swings and even playing lessons on one on the two stunning tracks Mr. Deck calls his office.

I recommend the One Day Short Game Scoring School, a good way to put ego aside (300-yard drives) and attend to the true money shots — flops, bump and runs, pitches, chips and bunker play. Golfers of any level can surely sharpen their elbows doing a 9-to-4 day at Pelican, and then send me royalties when they start successfully hustling their friends. All proceeds to charity, of course….

Golfers of all levels can benefit from Mr. Deck’s expertise, as well as that of his able lieutenant, Tim Mitchell, an eight-year veteran of the David Leadbetter Academy and beloved guru to young competitors and PGA tour players alike. Plus, you’re a sea lion’s bark away from the shimmering Pacific, not a bad place to work on your game — or to simultaneously spend a weekend with the family. The resort is nothing short of five shimmering stars as well.

Oh and p.s., don’t forget Coach Friedlander’s sage advice while striving to learn the fundamentals from his expert analysts! After he reminded me to chill the heck out and have a few laughs, I shot an uncustomary 39 on the front nine (before reverting to bogeying form on the back)! Golf is but a game — it may sound obvious, but he said it with such utter simplicity and good cheer it proved to be an infectious and effective mantra.

For more information, or to sign up for a clinic, contact Glenn Deck at 949.467.5810 or gdeck@pelicanhill.com.

In the city that invented the movies, one name has withstood the test of time better than the rest: Laemmle Theatres, the last outpost of conscientiously-curated film exhibition in greater Los Angeles. To honor its glorious seventy-five year run, the Laemmle Charitable Foundation is hosting a Gala Benefit on Dec.17, 2013, to benefit The Friends of the L.A. River and CicLAvia.

For a wee, tax-deductible $100 donation to two great causes, Royal Theater-attendees will enjoy a stellar evening of shmoozing, tapas and drinks, including a screening of Claude Lelouch’s 1965 classic, A Man and a Woman. An historical tribute book honoring the Laemmle legacy will be given to each patron who purchases a $5 raffle ticket, which might pay off in some great swag — annual passes, tickets to local cultural events and even a private screening for you and 100 friends!

The venerable family-run business has extended its reach in Southern California in recent years, including the beautiful new NoHo 7 location and upcoming plans for the Laemmle Lofts in Glendale, a five-screen theater with living/workspace below. In the meantime, join the city’s hipper and more conscious denizens Dec. 17 for what will likely prove to be one of the best ways to do good and have fun simultaneously. For more info, move the mouse over to www.laemmlefoundation.org and click away like a Flamenco dancer….

Being a creature of the road now and again, I constantly find myself in a dank and depressing hotel room amid a maze of wires connecting my laptop to a portable speaker, lest I have to listen to my next door neighbors guzzling bargain beer and shouting at each other, not that there’s anything wrong with that….

Happy to report that life has changed for the better since I got a pair of Logitech’s UE Boom Bluetooth speakers, humble sonic cylinders that produce the richest sound since the Big Guy told Moses which end was up on that fateful night on Mt. Sinai. Now, with these 7.2-inch columns sitting bedside (or just one if you don’t mind monophonic sound), I can fall asleep to Ravi Shankar instead of Bill and Betty Blowtorch toothcombing the dictionary for colorful invective.

Logitech touts the UE Boom as being able to provide 360-degree sound, and indeed it does seem to fill a room with a palpably discrete image no matter where it’s placed. I use it in my car as well, sitting the rubber-coated, can-shaped design snugly against the windshield and streaming Spotify through it rather than listening to the boring old radio. Also, when the phone rings, Da Boom is a very efficient interface — people understand me better speaking into the speaker than into my Blackberry cellphone!

The UE Boom is covered in a handsome, water-resistant mesh and feels virtually indestructible. Higher frequencies ring clearly and the low end is distinctly present without dominating. If you buy two, a downloadable iOS or Android app will allow you to enjoy your speakers in true stereophonic glory. P.S., fits perfectly in a Xmas stocking, hint, hint….

Form and function are rarely encountered in such felicitous balance as in Acer’s 5600U, an all-in-one touchscreen PC that is as well-designed inside as it is beautiful on the exterior. Ready for its close-up in a 21st-century sci-fi flick, the 5600U seems to be suspended in air right before your eyes — its full HD, 23-inch display perched on a tiny kickstand and making a conveniently small footprint in either the office or family room.

Junior will love the HDMI input which enables the screen to be used with your favorite game console, and which also looks great as a monitor for the included Blu-Ray Disc reader. There are copious ports for interconnectivity — three USB 2.0’s and two USB 3.0’s, HDMI in and out, S/PDIF for home theatre systems and an SD card slot. Keyboard and mouse are wireless, but remember — you can use your fingers on the touchscreen to navigate through Windows 8 effortlessly.

The display is beyond vivid (thank the Nvidia GeForce GT 630M graphics core), with rich colors and excellent contrast, and performance is fairly snappy given the Intel Core 15-3210 processor and 4GB of RAM. It is well worth the price if you’re looking for a sleek, multi-media center for the family — web browsing, text editing, YouTube viewing and the like are accessed and executed with alacrity and ease. To boot, Acer has included a Hybrid TV Tuner and VESA-compatible holes for wall mounting. All in all and all for one, this all-in one is all that and a bag of computer chips….

Word to the reality-adjusted: No, you will likely as not ever have the good fortune to book a table at the Harlem location of famed Italian eatery Rao’s. Unless your name is Luciano or Sinatra or Obama or Berlusconi (?), chances are you will not have the opportunity to hoist a forkful of delicious lemon-chicken from one of the 65 coveted seats in Manhattan. Mamma mia — che tragedia!

But wait — someone grab the Big Diva before she wails her final aria! Not only has the old-world comfort-food of Rao’s been available in Las Vegas for the last seven years, now they’ve taken root in Los Angeles in the building on Seward that used to house the venerable Hollywood Canteen. Take a look around, you might as well be up in Harlem: cherry-wood walls, jukebox playing Tony Bennett and The Drifters, white tablecloths and the perennial din and bustle of satisfied patrons.

As for the food, well, it’s right up my gustatory alley, which tends to prefer straightforward, peasant-y fare to the nouveau frou-frou of molecular gastronomy. Thanks, Rao’s, for not “deconstructing” my fork-tender veal parmigiana, or replacing the de rigueur San Marzano tomatoes in your marinara with local produce from Modesto. Kudos for keeping those lighter-than-air meatballs from floating up to the ceiling, and for stalwart menu items like baked clams and the ethereally light and fresh-tasting roasted pepper salad.

Service is as you’d expect it — unfussy, unobsequious yet hyper-attentive. Our drinks arrived in the blink of an eye, same with the comestibles, and an extra cupful of the to-live-and-die-for marinara sauce (I’d put it on Cheerios in the morning if it was handy — and it is, you can buy it at the supermarket nowadays!) was brought without charge or indignation. Verdict: not for the faint of wallet, but well worth the journey to experience what Old Blue Eyes must have felt like walking into this restaurant that time forgot — and that’s a good thing. No pretense, great food, simply magnifico.

Rao’s is currently open from 6-10:30 pm for dinner on weekdays only. The word is out so it would probably be a good idea to call in advance for reservations, at (323) 962-RAOS (7267).

Chances are that if you are a connoisseur of Southern California golf, you have heard the legend of La Purisima, eighteen holes of wind-whipped beauty north of Santa Barbara in Lompoc, better known for its federal prison than as a garden spot for golf tourism. That, my friends, is a weepin’ shame! Though it can prove penal now and again, La Purisima was designed for serious prisoners of the game and is as much admired as feared by devotées. The Robert Muir Graves design is located twenty minutes from Solvang, the rates are unbelievably cheap for a course of this caliber, and conditioning is generally top-notch. It is easily my favorite track in the SB area…..

My strategy for a recent visit was to stop in Santa Barbara for a fresh seafood dinner at Brophy Bros., then continue up the coast to O’Cairns Inn & Suites in Lompoc, a squeaky-clean and homey hostelry, where you’ll find big-screen LCD TV’s, spacious rooms and both a pool and a pool-room in case you want to hustle a game of eight-ball before retiring. They even serve a quite credible, made-to-order breakfast in the morning, with servers who are way too happy and friendly for that early in the day. What’s their secret, I’d like to know?

Bring an extra sleeve of balls if (like me) you are an inveterate sprayer off the tee. But even if you lose a Titleist or two at La Purisima, you’ll be rewarded by a glorious outdoor experience, and snapshot-worthy holes that will remain in the mind’s eye all the way home to El Lay. Fore!!

Close readers of this column may recall my misfortune earlier this year: losing my lovely iPhone 4s to a wily thief at a local public golf course. My last iota of faith in humanity was destroyed that fabled day. Sniff. Golf isn’t hard enough, I guess!

The good news is that I was able to drop my strangulating AT&T Wireless account (actually they keep charging me $40 a month even when I haven’t replaced the phone!) and sign up for a no binding ties deal with Virgin Mobile. For $35 clams a month, I get 300 anytime minutes and — here’s the beauty part — unlimited data and messaging. As I rarely speak to anyone on my cellphone these days, I’m fairly unconcerned about the calling plan. Speaking is, like, so passé!

The virtues: no contract; coverage is splendid in the greater L.A. area; you can keep your phone number if switching carriers, and there’s no hidden charges for “activation.” In addition, they have a wide array of the sexier smartphones on the market, though I am admittedly much enamored of the Samsung Galaxy Victory 4G LTE. Powered by the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS, this baby is blazing fast, ergonomically designed and takes very vivid snaps with its 5MP camera. I was already a big fan of Virgin America airlines, so why am I surprised that Virgin Mobile is user-friendly and easy on the pocketbook? Hey, Mr. Branson — it’s your long-lost cousin Dave! Send me one billion dollars for old time’s sake!? I’ll go up in space with you, I promise….

When in Rome, don a white flowing robe and a laurel wreath and strut around commanding obeisance to Caesar. When in Detroit, dress in denim, put on your tough-guy face and drive a car no less mean and lean than Dodge’s Challenger SXT, a sleek, responsive and powerful set of wheels that recall the glory days of Motown’s dominance in the field of automobile engineering. It’s a family paper, so I can’t exactly say the car is, um, bad a**, but take it from me, it actually is all that and more.

Rolling smoothly and surely on 18-inch alloy wheels, the SXT looks and feels like one of those classic 70s muscle cars, but bears the unmistakable modern stamp of increased fuel efficiency, safe and sure handling and a sense of design that appeals to young and old alike. Powered by a 305-hp, 3.6 liter V-6 engine (it also comes in a couple of heftier V-8 configurations), this two-door coupe edition feels plenty powerful when you want to open her up and smote the other commuters, but it also is an appropriate ride for casual city driving.

With its capacious trunk and comfortable cabin, I was very happy cruising to and fro to the local golf courses with plenty of room to spare, and also noticed I was garnering lots of attention from local Motowners proud of such classy local fare (even though Chrysler is actually part of Fiat nowadays). Equipped with a great, six-speaker sound system and satellite radio, you can drive for miles and miles and never feel the least bit bored. One can also upgrade to the Plus package that offers an iPod/USB interface and cool extras like fog-lights and heated front seats.

All I can tell you is that I was happily reliving my wasted Detroit youth driving these ultra-cool wheels, and that dollar-for-dollar (around $25K), I am actually considering laying down some hard-earned to get one next time I’m in the market. P.S., Go Lions!

Along with every other segment of the once hidebound golf gear industry, shoes have been transformed from clunky and square and pain-inducing to a marriage of form and function the likes of which haven’t been seen since the invention of the cotton gin — or better yet, the gin & tonic!

Now Ashworth — known best for its stylish line of golf apparel — has upped the ante with a spikeless golf shoe that feels as good on one’s feet as it looks to the admiring outside world. To boot, it delivers on the promise of rooting one’s feet to terra firma even when said earth is taking on some unwanted moisture. The Cardiff ADC‘s new spikeless outsole was designed with ingeniously-placed traction lugs that work equally well in the sand as they do in all varieties of turf — from dry to wet, fairway to rough and even beyond to the parking lot!

And yes, miladies faire, Ashworth has finally released a version for you as well. All of the ADC’s are available in a spectrum of cool color combinations and come with an endorsement from recent U.S. Open champion Justin Rose, who wore them both on and off the course this past year. From the freeway to the fairway without bending over to untie your sneakers, the Cardiff ADC’s are a worthy addition to any golfer’s arsenal.

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Who is David Weiss?

A Detroit native, David Weiss fled Motown for Los Angeles in 1978 and began to write for Daily Variety and the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, primarily as a music critic with a focus on jazz.

His own music career started soon thereafter, with the surrealistic funk band Was (Not Was), then various gigs as a composer and producer, working with Bob Dylan and Rickie Lee Jones among others.

In a parallel universe, Weiss has been filing golf and travel stories for T&L Golf, Golfweek and The New York Times and is a regular contributor to NPR's "All Things Considered" program, doing stories on music and all things cultural.